Camden County spokesman Dan Keashen called the complaint “outrageous and completely baseless.”

He said the county, which settled a similar suit in 2009, “adapted procedures more than 10 years ago to ensure we are following the state guidelines on searches at the jail.”

The 2009 settlement provided $7.5 million to people claiming they were illegally strip-searched at the Camden jail between 2003 and 2005.

A settlement agreement is pending in a similar dispute at Burlington County Jail in Mount Holly, where officials have agreed to pay $1.75 million to eligible detainees searched between Feb. 26, 2006, and Feb. 28, 2013.

Each payment would be capped at $400, with smaller amounts likely if more than 3,487 people make claims, the proposed deal says. The Burlington County class holds an estimated 10,000 to 14,000 people, but response rates in similar cases have averaged about 18 percent, according to the agreement.

The suit against Camden County was brought by Isrel Dillard, a county resident who contends he was the subject of an improper “full strip and visual cavity search” after his arrest on a child support warrant in November 2017.

Dillard was released two days later without seeing a judge, says the lawsuit, which asserts the warrant was issued in error.

The suit seeks to represent Dillard and other detainees it alleges were improperly searched since July 2, 2016.

“These strip searches have been conducted on individuals arrested for, among other innocuous offenses, driving while intoxicated, driving with a suspended license, harassment, non-payment of child support and trespassing,” says the suit.

Dillard also seeks to represent a subgroup of detainees who were strip-searched either prior to an appearance before a judge who could order their release or who were not given “a reasonable opportunity to post bail.”

The class period for that group would begin in May 15, 2013, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuits follow an April 2012 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled newly arrived inmates could be strip-searched, "no matter what the circumstances." That case involved a lawsuit brought against Burlington County by a man, Albert Florence, who was jailed and repeatedly searched after an arrest on a mistaken warrant.

Chief Justice John Roberts noted in a concurring opinion that the ruling did "not foreclose the possibility of an exception to the rule it announces."

“The Supreme Court left open the question of how to address people, such as Mr. Dillard, who have been arrested and have not yet had an opportunity to see a judge," said Bob Keach, an Albany attorney who filed the suit on July 2.

"Several courts, after Florence, have held that searches of individuals such as Mr. Dillard remain unconstitutional," said Keach, who was also an attorney in the suit that led to Camden County's settlement in 2009.